Development challenges of water resources management in Africa: a briefing note

Abstract

Africa is a continent of great possibilities and great uncertainties. In the management of its water resources, the uncertainties are characterized by cyclical floods and droughts. Examples of these phenomena are the floods which occurred last year in Mozambique rendering a million people homeless, killing thousands, wiping out farms and cattle on which most rural people depended and reversing an impressive economic recovery of a country emerging from decades of civil strife and instability. Similar floods occurred two years ago in Kenya and Tanzania as a result of El-Nino rains with devastating effects on the livelihood of their people through the destruction of infrastructure, disease and other damage.